1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to an equipment or machinery guard which includes one or more panels of flexible fabric such as fluorocarbon resin coated fiberglass which is lightweight and may be more easily removed from its working position and stored when access to the machinery is required.
2. Background
Many types of machines require, by governmental regulation or by prudent judgment, guards or barriers to prevent accidental contact with the machine by personnel in the vicinity of the machine. Such guards typically are fabricated of expanded or perforated metal panels which may be secured together or to the machine or equipment to provide protection from contact with portions of the machine which may cause injury. Certain criteria for equipment guards must, of course, be met. The guard structure typically should be somewhat foraminous to permit ventilation in the vicinity of the machine or equipment and to permit visual observation of the condition of the machine. At the same time the guard must be structurally adequate to prevent personnel from accidentally falling on or through the guard and coming in contact with the machine. Certain other requirements must be met in certain machinery guard applications such as breaking strength, operating temperature range and resistance to combustion.
All of the above-mentioned requirements must be met by equipment guards which are sometimes required to be placed in confined spaces such as on-board portable mining equipment, transportation equipment and the like. In these types of applications the machinery to be guarded is sometimes located in a confined space and access to the machine and removal and temporary storage of the guard is difficult. The weight of the guard pieces is often such as to make it difficult for personnel to move the guard away from the machine and the confined space in which the machine is disposed makes it difficult or impossible to place the guard in an out-of-the-way position so that servicing or repair of the machine which is being guarded may be carried out. Meeting all of these criteria for equipment guards has been a vexing problem for workers in the art of equipment guard design and fabrication. However, in accordance with the present invention, the criteria and desiderata for equipment guards in many applications has been met with an improved equipment guard which will be described in further detail hereinbelow.